
Casta del Sol is a retirement community located in Mission Viejo, CA which was named the safest city in the U.S. It is a planned development of nearly 2000 homes built in a natural environment of gentle rolling hills with many views. When the Santa Ana winds blow, you can see from some locations, all the way to the Pacific Ocean, 7 miles away and in the other direction Saddleback Mountain. Located 1 ½ miles from Mission Viejo Lake with swimming, fishing and boating, it is like living in a resort.
It was built starting in the early 1970's and finished in the1990s, so there are many different floor plans and architectural designs. These are detached and attached homes mostly single story in a guard gated community.
Activities abound both within and adjacent to our community. Having 2 pool, spa, 2 club houses, exercise room, meeting rooms and hobby rooms giving you plenty of socializing locations. Within Casta del Sol there is bowling, library, walking paths, garden club, wood carving, ceramic arts, parks etc.
This is the best location to retire iOcean beaches are only 7 to 10 miles away, lake is 1 ½ mile, mountain is 8 miles, deserts are one hour drive and theme parks in all directions.
Are you considering buying a home when the market is right? Do you know how to find out when that will be? Keeping in touch with what is going on and having the right person watching over the real estate market for you would be a good thing. Realtors pride themselves in researching and evaluating all the data that is available, to see how it will benefit their clients. There are news reports every day that the market is going up, that it is going down, buy now, buy next year, sell, don't sell, how can you possibly know what to do, if the so called experts can't agree on what to do?
Most of the time, the news that is reported, isn't right here in your neighborhood but a generalization of the whole country or at best a large metro area. You can get the facts for your neighborhood from a Realtor and find out what the house down the street is listed for or sold for. Most Realtors have a web site available that will help you to do your searches from. Some of these sites will also help you find out what is going on in other areas of the state, just in case you have to move.
Who better to assist you but someone who is spending their whole day looking at the information you need!
We all know the politicians will spend more than they have and will try anything to get us to pay for it. California has come up with a way to have the public pay first and they'll give it back to us at a later date. Right, I'll believe that! This is from the Wall Street Journal.
Desperation grabs for revenue are nothing new in politics, but California is once again leading the way in creative financing.
To help close yet another gaping budget deficit, now estimated to be $7 billion this year and reach as high as $20 billion next, Sacramento lawmakers have authorized a 10% increase in the amount of taxes withheld from worker paychecks starting November 1 and through 2010. The extra withholding tax will reduce Californians' take-home pay by about $1.7 billion for the year. But the lawmakers say this isn't a tax increase. OK, how about calling it a compulsory interest-free loan from taxpayers to the state?
According to the Franchise Tax Board, 10,004,000 Californians overpaid their state taxes last year and received an average refund of $903. The withholding penalty is expected to snatch between $20 and $90 a month from middle-class families. For those feeling the pinch of recession and living paycheck to paycheck, that penalty will hurt.
Of course, the government is obliged to return this money next spring when workers get their tax refunds, so this is the ultimate budget gimmick. It borrows from taxpayers now and deepens the budget hole next year. And we almost hate to ask: What happens come April if the state doesn't have enough money to pay the tax refunds it owes its citizens? Will taxpayers get IOUs the way state contractors did last year when Sacramento ran out of money?
Meanwhile, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature now face their sixth "extraordinary session" to balance the budget. Income tax rates went up last year by 0.25%, bringing the top rate to 10.55%, but receipts are already coming in $1 billion below projections, according to the state controller.
The politicians could use this continuing crisis as an opportunity to reform the state's tax code with lower rates and fewer deductions and loopholes, as recently proposed by the governor's tax reform commission. But that plan has been panned by the ruling classes in Sacramento. They claim to want to steal only from the rich, but their latest withholding ruse is showing that they'll steal from anyone with a paycheck.
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A24
Just did a check on how the market in my area is doing. I work out of Lake Forest, CA Population is over 78,000
Total Active on the market
11/2/09- - 145 homes, 89 detached, 56 attached
.Short Sale Active
11/2/09- -59 out of 145
REO Active
11/2/09- -10 out of 145
In Default Active properties
11/2/09- - 5 out of 145
That leaves 71 out of 145 as equity sellers for 11/2/09
October is looking better than September did. The changes that have happened in Lake Forest are showing an improvement. We are showing a decrease in distressed properties on the market with 69 out of 145. Short sales sellers and REOs are taking a larger percentage of the active market. October is one of the slower buying months and inventory has remained the same lower than usual.
As we go into the fall the market Lake Forest will change some! It always does! Equity sellers are at 48% of the market for October. Are we seeing the "shadow inventory" starting to come on the market or is the buying season just slowing down? My pick is the slow market!
We have 71 properties in backup and 38 that are pending.
Let me know how things are going in your market.
CASTA DEL SOL INFORMATION for November 2, 2009
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